Used long time, trademarks have fundamental paper to designate provenance of products or manufacturers, in addition to having vast importance in relations between companies and consumers because they act as a safety factor for both, facilitating the identification of products and companies. In Brazil, obtained regulation from the Decree 2682 of 1875, and are currently regulated by Law nº 9279 of May 14, 1996, his registration is held by the INPI, and comes to be considered the most important among the intellectual properties. The objectives of this study are to evaluate whether the companies from Sergipe promote the protection of their trademarks through registration and investigate the use of the registry gives satisfactorily or not, in order to perform a state panorama related to trademark registration for that is subsequently possible to trace actions and objectives to promote the culture of protection of trademarks. The sample searched was 761 companies from Sergipe, subdivided into 5 groups of classes of activities, named according to their relationship with their branches and denominated as follows: Construction, Foods, Confection and Graphic Services and the remaining are grouped in a class called Other Activities, with branches ratings less significant occurrences. Data were collected from consultations in the systems of Federal Revenue Department and the INPI, and data analysis was performed using a quantitative approach, showing that only 8.94% of the surveyed companies made filing applications for trademark registrations. Data were collected from consultations in the systems of Federal Revenue Department and the INPI, and data analysis was performed using a quantitative approach, showing that only 8.94% of the surveyed companies made filing applications for trademark registrations, where 31,97% are registered, the same 31.97% are filed or extinct and the others in progress. Also showing an average of 8.62 years for the application to be made by the companies, counted from the year they were open, the prevalence of applications of trademarks of products, the branch of Construction with the worst numbers among business segments and Individual Entrepreneurs with worse outcomes between the legal natures of the companies analyzed. / Utilizadas há muito tempo, as marcas possuem papel fundamental para designar procedência de produtos ou fabricantes, além de possuir vasta importância nas relações entre as empresas e os consumidores pois agem como um fator de segurança para ambos, facilitando a identificação dos atributos dos produtos e das empresas. No Brasil, obtiveram regulamentação a partir do Decreto nº 2.682, de 1875, e atualmente são regidas pela Lei nº 9.279, de 14 de maio de 1996, seu registro é realizado pelo INPI, e chega a ser considerada a mais importante entre as propriedades intelectuais. Os objetivos deste estudo são avaliar se as empresas sergipanas promovem a proteção de suas marcas através do registro, e investigar se a utilização do registro se dá de forma satisfatória ou não, no intuito de realizar um panorama estadual relacionado ao registro de marcas para que, posteriormente, seja possível traçar ações e objetivos para promover a cultura de proteção às marcas. A amostra pesquisada foi de 761 empresas sergipanas, subdivididas em 5 grupos de ramos de atividades, denominados de acordo com sua relação com seus ramos e denominados da seguinte maneira: Construção, Alimentos, Confecção e Serviços Gráficos e as demais agrupados no grupo designado Outras Atividades, com classificações de ramos com ocorrências menos expressivas. Os dados foram coletados a partir de consultas nos sistemas da Receita Federal e do INPI, e a análise dos dados foi realizada com abordagem quantitativa, demonstrando que apenas 8,94% das empresas pesquisadas realizaram pedido de registro de marca, estando 31,97% registrados, os mesmos 31,97% arquivados ou extintos e os demais em andamento. Evidenciando, ainda, uma média de 8,62 anos para o pedido de registro ser efetuado pelas empresas, contados do ano em que foram abertas, a prevalência de pedidos de registro de marcas de produtos, o ramo da Construção com os piores números entre os ramos de atividades e os Empresários Individuais com os piores resultados entre as naturezas jurídicas das empresas analisadas.

This thesis investigates the role of prior use in common and statutory trade mark law. In the United States a pertinent requirement is priority of use. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a reputation must be present. In the United Kingdom a plaintiff is required to have goodwill in the country, but in the United States and South Africa it is not required. The conception of a mark does not qualify for protection. It is not required that a business must have actually entered the market. In the United States the general approach is that a plaintiff will not receive protection in a remote area, but regard must be had to zones of natural expansion. British and South African law is the same, and protection may be obtained in areas where there is no trading. Where a dual reputation exists, neither party will be able to act against the other. The mere fact that the user of a mark was aware of the use thereof by another person, does not exclude protection. A trade mark application can be opposed on the basis of another application, combined with use of a mark, or on the ground of prior use. In some instances the fact that a mark has been filed will influence the burden of proof. In general, a registration can be expunged on the same grounds as would constitute grounds of opposition. The concurrent use of a mark can form the basis for the registration of a mark. In the United States, the use must have taken place prior to the filing date of the other party, but in the United Kingdom and South Africa, prior to the own filing date. In the latter two countries, knowledge of a mark is not necessarily exclusionary. Prior use is generally accepted as a defence to an infringement action. It is, however, noted that in various countries, it is only use prior to the relevant date that will be protected, and there is not necessarily a right to extend the scope of use concerned. / Mercantile Law / LL.D. (Mercantile Law)

Thesis (LLM)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Includes bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses current South African copyright law to ascertain the proper interpretation and application of the fair dealing provisions contained in the Copyright Act 98 of 1978. Copyright law ensures that authors’ works are not used without their consent, which they can grant subject to compensation or conditions attached to the use. Fair dealing exceptions allow the general public to use copyright works for certain purposes without the copyright owner’s consent and without paying compensation. These provisions are intended to balance copyright owners’ interests with the interest that members of the public have in using copyright works for socially beneficial purposes. These provisions typically allow the use of a copyright work for the purposes of research or private study, personal or private use, criticism and review, and news reporting. Unfortunately there is no South African case law concerning the fair dealing provisions, and the application of these exceptions remains unclear. This study aims to clarify the extent of application of the fair dealing exceptions to copyright infringement so that courts may be more willing to consider foreign and international law and in doing so develop South African intellectual property law. The social and economic policy considerations underlying the fair dealing exceptions are considered to determine their function. International conventions relating to copyright and neighbouring rights are examined, specifically the provisions allowing exceptions to copyright. The legislation and case law of Australia and the United Kingdom are analysed to determine the proper interpretation and application of these statutory defences. This knowledge is then used to inform South African law. The Copyright Act 98 of 1978 does not contain a fair dealing exception for parody and satire. Australian legislation does contain such an exception, and it is analysed in that context. An exception for parody is proposed for South African law, and the need for and application of this provision is considered. The constitutionality of the proposed exception is evaluated in terms of its impact on the constitutional property rights of copyright owners. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek Suid-Afrikaanse outeursreg om die behoorlike uitleg en toepassing van die “billike gebruik”-bepalings in die Wet op Outeursreg 98 van 1978 te bepaal. Outeursreg beskerm die werk van ʼn outeur teen ongemagtigde gebruik van haar intellektuele eiendom. Gebruik kan deur die outeur gemagtig word, òf teen vergoeding òf onderhewig aan bepaalde voorwaardes. Artikels 12-19B (die billike gebruik-bepalings) van die Wet op Outeursreg laat ander toe om sekere werke te gebruik sonder die toestemming van die eienaar van die werk en sonder om vergoeding te betaal. Die bepalings streef om ʼn balans te tref tussen die belange van die outeur en die belange van die publiek. ʼn Werk mag volgens hierdie bepalings tipies gebruik word vir die doeleindes van navorsing of private studie, persoonlike of private gebruik, beoordeling of resensie, of om nuus te rapporteer. Daar is tans geen Suid-Afrikaanse regspraak rakende hierdie uitsonderings nie, en hul toepassing is dus onseker. Hierdie tesis beoog om die werking van die billike gebruik-bepalings duidelik uiteen te sit om hoër gewilligheid in howe te skep om internasionale en buitelandse reg toe te pas, en sodoende Suid-Afrikaanse immateriële goederereg te ontwikkel. Die sosiale en ekonomiese beleidsoorwegings wat die bepalings ondersteun word geanaliseer om die doel daarvan te bepaal. Internasionale outeursreg-verdragte word bespreek om ʼn raamwerk vir die uitsonderings te skep. Wetgewing en regspraak van Australië en die Verenigde Koninkryk word ondersoek, en die kennis wat daar opgedoen word, word toegepas op die Suid-Afrikaanse bepalings. Die Wet op Outeursreg 98 van 1978 bevat geen uitsondering vir die doeleindes van parodie en satire nie. Die Australiese Wet op Outeursreg 63 van 1968 bevat wel so ʼn uitsondering, en dit word in hierdie verband beoordeel. ʼn Uitsondering vir parodie en satire word voorgestel en oorweeg in die konteks van Suid-Afrikaanse outeursreg. Die grondwetlikheid van die voorgestelde uitsondering word bepaal na aanleiding van die impak wat dit sal hê op outeurs se eiendomsreg.

De nouvelles marques de commerce ont fait progressivement leur apparition, des marques qui font appel à nos cinq sens que sont la vue, l'ouïe, l'odorat, le goût ou même le touché. Ces nouvelles marques, que l'on appelle parfois les marques non traditionnelles, posent quelques difficultés pour être enregistrées. En effet, certains pays refusent leur enregistrement, d'autres sont plus réceptifs à l'arrivée de ces nouvelles marques. Notre mémoire se propose d'analyser la possibilité ou non d'enregistrer certaines de ces marques au Canada, et d'examiner également ce que d'autres pays ont prévu pour ces marques non traditionnelles. Au final, nous serons en mesure d'élaborer des recommandations pour l'intégration de ces nouvelles marques dans le droit canadien. / In recent years, new trademarks have progressively appeared: trademarks appealing to all of our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste or even touch. These new trademarks, sometimes called non-traditional marks, raise difficulties for registration. Indeed, some countries refuse registration, others are more open to the arrival of these new trademarks. This thesis analyses the possibility of allowing these non-traditional trademarks to be registered in Canada, and examines the conditions under which other countries accept to register them. In conclusion, our analysis will allow us to formulate recommendations on how to integrate these new trademarks into Canadian law.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:20:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Falcone.pdf: 2322508 bytes, checksum: aa7fd42a85ac89e83485953407c2ac71 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-26 / In the era of knowledge, by triggering a real technology race by the various economic agents, the industrial property, more than an exclusive right, consists in a powerful instrument of competition. Unfortunately, such a facet of industrial property has never been exploited and disseminated either by the local legal community or national companies. The first one preferred to adopt a position characterized by a strong social appeal (not always technically grounded) and the second ones did not do so because they simply lacked a culture of protection of their intangible assets. A simplistic and perfunctory judgment of the matter may suggest that industrial property and competition law are two areas of Law completely antagonistic and irreconcilable with each other. Such a construction could jeopardize the legal safety that economic agents need to invest in scientific development and technology research. This study therefore aims at examining, in a scientific fashion, the relationship between industrial property law and competition law. First and foremost, an assessment of both foreign and Brazilian experiences will be conducted as a preparatory field for a principiologic analysis of both areas of Law. Once the relevant principles are identified in both foreign and Brazilian experiences according to the deductive method, it will be investigated which principles are either coincident or harmonic and the theoretical formulation of Robert Alexy will be applied to cases of conflict, in order to demonstrate that the relationship between both legal areas is actually harmonic and complementary / entre os vários agentes econômicos, a propriedade industrial, antes de um direito de exclusiva, consiste num poderoso instrumento de concorrência. Esta faceta da propriedade industrial infelizmente não foi, até o momento, explorada e difundida tanto entre a comunidade jurídica local quanto pelo empresariado brasileiro. A primeira preferiu um discurso pautado em forte apelo social (e nem sempre tecnicamente fundamentado); e o segundo não o fez simplesmente porque lhe faltava a cultura da proteção de seu capital imaterial. Uma análise simplista e perfunctória da questão poderia levar ao entendimento de que a propriedade industrial e o direito da concorrência seriam duas áreas da ciência jurídica completamente antagônicas e inconciliáveis, interpretação esta que poderia colocar em risco a segurança jurídica de que os agentes econômicos necessitam para investir em desenvolvimento científico e pesquisa tecnológica. O objetivo do presente estudo consiste, pois, em discorrer, de forma científica, sobre as relações entre direito de propriedade industrial e defesa da concorrência. Proceder-se-á, por primeiro, a um estudo da experiência estrangeira e brasileira como campo preparatório para a análise principiológica. Uma vez identificados os princípios atinentes aos dois campos do direito, extraídos da experiência estrangeira e brasileira segundo método dedutivo, investigar-se-ão quais são coincidentes ou harmônicos e aplicar-se-á a formulação teórica de Robert Alexy aos casos de colisão, a fim de demonstrar que a relação existente entre ambos é, em verdade, de harmonia e complementaridade

La rencontre intervenue entre les biens protégés par le droit de la propriété intellectuelle et l'internet ne s'est pas faite sans heurts. Ubiquitaire, immatériel, anonyme et transfrontalier sont autant de spécificités de l'internet qui mettent en péril les prérogatives des titulaires de droit de propriété intellectuelle. Dans cette optique, l'identification des usages couverts par un droit de propriété intellectuelle est un enjeu essentiel pour déterminer le périmètre de la contrefaçon en ligne. Ainsi, la portée des droits de propriété intellectuelle sur l'internet détermine le périmètre de la contrefaçon en ligne. Dans cet environnement numérique, la portée des droits de propriété intellectuels ne peut être révélé qu'à l'étude de la masse des atteintes qu'ils endurent. Or, cette analyse ne souffre aucune ambiguïté. Il en résulte incontestablement le constat d'une limitation de la portée des droits exclusifs dans l'environnement numérique. Par ailleurs, la protection des droits de propriété intellectuelle est également affaiblie lors du traitement de la contrefaçon en ligne. En ce domaine, l'intervention du droit international privé est fréquente puisque les atteintes aux droits de la propriété intellectuelle présente souvent un élément d'extranéité. Toutefois, les critères de rattachement territoriaux prévus par la règle de conflit rendent difficile la détermination de la juridiction compétente dans un contentieux partiellement ou totalement dématérialisé. La responsabilité des acteurs de l'internet présente également de nombreuses faiblesses favorisant la diffusion de tout type de contenu / The meeting between property, protected by property rights an the internet has not been easy. Omnipresent, intangible and anonymity are so many of the particularities of the internet that jeopardize the privilege of the owners of intellectual property rights. In this context the identification of uses covere by an intellectual property right is a key issue in determining the scope of online counterfeiting. In this digital environment, the scope of intellectual property rights can be revealed by studying the mass of infringements they are subjected to. The above analysis is unbiased. This undeniably results in a limitation of the scope of exclusive rights in the digital environment. In addition, the protection of intellectual property rights is also weakened when dealing with cyber-counterfeiting. In this field, the intervention of private international law is frequent since when the infringements of intellectual property rights begin having an element of foreignness. However, the territorial attachment criteria provided by the conflict’s rule make it difficult to determine the competent jurisdiction in a partially or totally dematerialized legal dispute. The responsibility of Internet protagonists also has many weaknesses promoting the dissemination of any type of information

A domain name is a unique alphanumeric designation that facilitates reference to sets of numbers which actually locate a particular computer on the Internet. Domain names are a fundamental part of the Internet's user interface. Improving the usability of the Internet depends upon effective domain name policy. This study is intended to contribute to improvement in Internet usability for the end users of domain names. Benefits of more usable domain names include: higher sales, customer satisfaction and productivity, and reduced support costs. Domain name policies worldwide vary considerably. Consequently, end users are inconvenienced by contradictory domain name policies, diminishing the predictability of an entity's domain name, and thus decreasing usability for end users. The study objective was to develop criteria with which policy makers can evaluate their domain name policies, in order to improve the usability of domain names for end users. The main research question posed was: What are the criteria for an effective domain name policy? The research methodology included a literature review, domain name policy examination and an ethnographic narrative. The literature review found existing research examining either domain names or usability in isolation. However, research examining the intersection of the two is scarce. The existing research describes domain names as part of the web user interface. In practical terms, this is about how people use domain names to access web sites, email addresses and other Internet resources. It was established that the predictability (and thus usability) of domain names relies on effective domain name policy. The non-standardised and widely delegated process of domain name policy development leads to unpredictable and inconsistent domain names. The narrative recollection presented the researcher's inside perspective on the domain name industry, with a focus on domain name usability. The researcher provided first-hand insights into the evolution of the industry and policy development process, from Australian and international perspectives. To address the problem of poor domain name usability, a framework for domain name policy evaluation is proposed. The framework extends the current research that treats domain names as a user interface by proposing criteria which address usability concerns. The framework allows policy makers to critically assess domain name policies with end users in mind. Examples of the criteria include: understanding who are its intended and untended users, and whether it's consistent with other domain names. The framework has the potential to set an international standard for the critical evaluation of domain name policy, and become the basis for further research. This study was developed from the researcher's perspective as a participant in the domain name industry. A secondary lens regarding the usability of domain names was then applied. This study has only scraped the surface in terms of how the research fields of domain names and usability may be considered together. The research methodology for this study was primarily qualitative and interpretive. A quantitative study of domain name policies globally could provide further insight into areas including: the differences in second level country code domain names, and language implications of domain names.

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

De nouvelles marques de commerce ont fait progressivement leur apparition, des marques qui font appel à nos cinq sens que sont la vue, l'ouïe, l'odorat, le goût ou même le touché. Ces nouvelles marques, que l'on appelle parfois les marques non traditionnelles, posent quelques difficultés pour être enregistrées. En effet, certains pays refusent leur enregistrement, d'autres sont plus réceptifs à l'arrivée de ces nouvelles marques. Notre mémoire se propose d'analyser la possibilité ou non d'enregistrer certaines de ces marques au Canada, et d'examiner également ce que d'autres pays ont prévu pour ces marques non traditionnelles. Au final, nous serons en mesure d'élaborer des recommandations pour l'intégration de ces nouvelles marques dans le droit canadien. / In recent years, new trademarks have progressively appeared: trademarks appealing to all of our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste or even touch. These new trademarks, sometimes called non-traditional marks, raise difficulties for registration. Indeed, some countries refuse registration, others are more open to the arrival of these new trademarks. This thesis analyses the possibility of allowing these non-traditional trademarks to be registered in Canada, and examines the conditions under which other countries accept to register them. In conclusion, our analysis will allow us to formulate recommendations on how to integrate these new trademarks into Canadian law.

This thesis investigates the role of prior use in common and statutory trade mark law. In the United States a pertinent requirement is priority of use. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a reputation must be present. In the United Kingdom a plaintiff is required to have goodwill in the country, but in the United States and South Africa it is not required. The conception of a mark does not qualify for protection. It is not required that a business must have actually entered the market. In the United States the general approach is that a plaintiff will not receive protection in a remote area, but regard must be had to zones of natural expansion. British and South African law is the same, and protection may be obtained in areas where there is no trading. Where a dual reputation exists, neither party will be able to act against the other. The mere fact that the user of a mark was aware of the use thereof by another person, does not exclude protection. A trade mark application can be opposed on the basis of another application, combined with use of a mark, or on the ground of prior use. In some instances the fact that a mark has been filed will influence the burden of proof. In general, a registration can be expunged on the same grounds as would constitute grounds of opposition. The concurrent use of a mark can form the basis for the registration of a mark. In the United States, the use must have taken place prior to the filing date of the other party, but in the United Kingdom and South Africa, prior to the own filing date. In the latter two countries, knowledge of a mark is not necessarily exclusionary. Prior use is generally accepted as a defence to an infringement action. It is, however, noted that in various countries, it is only use prior to the relevant date that will be protected, and there is not necessarily a right to extend the scope of use concerned. / Mercantile Law / LL.D. (Mercantile Law)